Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to, for example, an automatic electric field immunohistochemical staining apparatus and an automatic electric field immunohistochemical staining method that can be used in intraoperative rapid pathological diagnosis of characterizing a subject tissue specimen (lesion site) within a limited length of time during surgical procedures or endoscopic surgery.
Description of the Prior Art
A physical phenomenon is known in which Coulomb force is generated by a high-voltage alternating electric field and this Coulomb force draws droplets in one direction. It is also known that droplets undergo vibration as the polarity of the applied high voltage is changed. Once droplets are drawn and vibrated, fine matter present in the droplets becomes stirred. The present inventors have focused on these physical phenomena and have, to date, developed a technology of contactlessly stirring minute droplets of not more than 1 mL, especially on the order of 50 to several hundred microliters, by applying a high-voltage alternating electric field. In particular, if this technology is applied to droplets containing antibodies, it is thought that the antibodies would be stirred in the droplets and become actively dispersed. The present inventors have proposed in Patent Reference 1 described below a non-contact stirring technique that significantly shortens the time required for, for example, an antigen fixation step, a blocking step, an antigen-antibody reaction step, and a color development reaction step in ELISA (hereinafter this technique may also be referred to as “electric field stirring technique”).